NEWS END OF JULY 2014

Dear Friends,

One of my one-time students in the Siaya Theological Centre has recently been ordained as a father in the Coptic Orthodox church. He is shortly to take over the leadership of a number of Coptic churches in Nakuru, a large town in Kenya. Another young man who I worked very closely with for many years was both student and teacher in Yala Theological Centre is due to be ordained as an Anglican priest on 10th August. He will be working in a parish about 20 miles away from my home.

One’s impact on the children one looks after can indeed be diverse. It includes influencing them re. their means of transport. A few of the children who once stayed with me seem of late to be getting known for their love of cycling!

I am glad to be able to report that Peter had a good stay here. He came on Saturday 12th July, and stayed through to 22nd. As usual, it was good to have a friend here from UK. Peter being a member of my council of reference in the UK, it was especially valuable to be able to orient him to the way things are here. We made a lot of visits to indigenous churches. Peter had various opportunities to share God’s word with folks. He spent some nights at home and got to know us there. Although we had no plans to go to a gamepark, we ended up seeing a sign to Ndere Island which is in Lake Victoria, and decided to go and explore it. We found a small island, 4.2km2, which has had various game animals imported onto it. A trip by motorboat across the lake, followed by a couple of hours walking around on the island enabled us to see some zebra, vervet monkey, impala, bush buck and a few other animals.

The Alliance for Vulnerable Mission has now become a member of the Micah network.

26th July I hope to attend the KIST graduation. From thereon, 2 or 3 Tanzanian colleagues should be staying with me in Yala until 5th August. God willing 5th August we’ll travel together to Tanzania to spend 1 or 2 weeks there taking seminars with Church of God congregations who are near Lake Victoria, in northern Tanzania.

This mailing will be delayed for a few days because Angela Merridale who sends it out is recovering from an operation. Please pray for Angela in her time of recovery.

Jim